going somewhere where the sun is shining bright

On quarter life crises…

Ironically, my quarter life crisis happened just as I turned 25. I remember exactly how I felt that day. C called me around lunch time and had to deal with me breaking down into tears. I felt stuck there at work and at the other dental practice I was working at with no sign of respite. My shoulders and back could not take the physical toll, while mentally I began to loathe repeating the words I said hour after hour. I worked in windowless rooms with artificial air, light and overly cheery wall stickers. I didn’t know when it was fine, windy, raining or when the sun had set. I tried other work, but it was not what I was looking for. I took a month off to study a certificate in teaching English to adults, which landed me a job that I could do at the same time as hygiene. This year I started studying interior design while working as a teacher, so now I feel that I went from somewhere I didn’t want to be, to somewhere I don’t mind being, going somewhere that excites me.

Talking to many elderly people in dental hygiene taught me that life is too short for me to be somewhere stagnant. I’ve found that many of the international students I teach are roughly the same age as us and have told me very similar stories to mine. I’ve also met inspirational students with amazing dreams and strong desires to achieve them. I admire them so much, coming from a culture and society that doesn’t help us to cultivate such dreams. The students dare me to dream and be more passionate about life, compared to the softer push from the older folk who have already lived their lives. Some things I’d like to achieve are…

running a photography business

living overseas

starting a family

opening a workshop where I can teach and sell handcrafts/other things?

On design…

I want to share some of my work from my first semester in interior design. Before I started, I thought it would be very difficult to get anything above a GPA 5 because of the nature of design, but I surprised myself and did much better than I expected.

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4 thoughts on “going somewhere where the sun is shining bright”

Good to see you’re doing something that makes you happy – and it really shows through this post! I just read the “Furniture sustainability” report/essay (which raises a lot of good points, and makes me not want to go to Ikea ever again…) but I’ll check out your other work when I get a chance 🙂

Great post Jess! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your journey with us… def agree life is too short to be somewhere stagnant!
Very excited to see your designs.. maybe one day we’ll get you to help us improve our place! 🙂

I hardly ever see you and this is the best update of what you’ve been up to. Granted I need to get out of the lab way more and physically see you but you’re as elusive as a program that runs perfectly the first time! That was a nerdy way of saying that we need to see each other more.
For the record, I think you’d be well suited to Interior design because you always were a creative and caring person. Good for you in finding that fire in life!

Duuuuuude, this is such an awesome post! I love that you’re trying all these things out, and continue to seek inspiration for your path forward. I didn’t read through all your assessments but I really like the interactive presentation style you had for two of them. It was kinda cool to be able to almost wander along through the reports as you wish. Also, your drawings are soooo good! Keep doing what you’re doing!